Trial delay sought in former BP exec’s Gulf oil spill criminal case

David Rainey, a former BP vice president during the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, leaves Federal Court after being arraigned on obstruction of a federal investigation in New Orleans in November 2012. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

Lawyers for both sides are seeking a five-month  delay in the trial of  a former BP executive charged with lying to federal officials about the amount of oil that was flowing from the company’s undersea well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Federal prosecutors and lawyers for David Rainey of Houston filed a joint motion this week in federal court in New Orleans seeking to postpone the trial from Oct. 15 to March 10.

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If granted, it would mark the second time the trial has been delayed. The request follows the government’s recent renewal of an obstruction of Congress charge against Rainey.

The judge presiding over the case had thrown the charge out on legal grounds. The government then tweaked the charge and got a grand jury to issue a superseding indictment.

Rainey, who has pleaded not guilty, also faces a charge of making false statements to federal investigators.

Read ongoing FuelFix coverage of the legal trials surrounding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill:

The Gulf disaster from spill to trial

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